Study: 83% of video operators plan to offer TV Everywhere by 2013

TV Everywhere services are poised to hit the mainstream, according to a recent study by Infonetics Research.

With the increased competition from telcos, satellite providers and over-the-top offerings, cable operators can reduce subscriber churn by offering TV Everywhere services to various devices. A recent study by Infonetics Research, “IPTV service deployment strategies: Global service provider survey,” found that multi-screen services were gaining traction.

“Because it’s so challenging to differentiate on content, pay-TV providers are looking to stand out from their competitors by offering additional services and features, such as multi-screen viewing, social networking, and content discovery and recommendation services,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research. “In particular, multi-screen video is gaining momentum across all pay-TV operator types (cable, satellite and IPTV) in all regions: 83 percent of the operators we interviewed plan to offer some type of multi-screen viewing – PC, smartphone, tablet – by 2013.”

Operators participating in the survey most often delivered linear broadcast TV over a pure IP network.

The majority of IPTV service providers interviewed do not currently support video streaming services such as YouTube, Hulu or Netflix.

Only one-third of IPTV operators surveyed currently offered social networking capabilities for the TV.

Subscription video-on-demand (S-VOD) was the moneymaker among VOD offerings; 83 percent of respondents offered S-VOD for access to premium channels such as HBO, Showtime and Starz and libraries of first-run movies today, growing to 89 percent by next year.